A BLIND man who bled to death in his bed has been remembered as “kind and considerate gent”.

Ian Bell was found dead by a friend in the house they shared on Castle Street, Maesteg, on November 8 last year.

The 55-year-old had opened kidney dialysis catheter tubes connected to blood vessels in his neck before bleeding to death, an inquest heard.

A postmortem examination found he had “very little blood left in his body”.

Friend of eight years Gareth Ifan, who lived with Mr Bell in Maesteg, paid tribute to the former IT worker after the Aberdare Coroner’s Court hearing last week.

“He was a very kind and considerate gent,” he said.

“He would always try and do anything to help anybody.”

He added: “He loved fishing and was an excellent writer and he was working to write a novel.”

Mr Bell, who was registered blind, had had a line fitted into his neck for his thrice weekly dialysis treatment.

Mr Ifan, who helped his friend Mr Bell with some aspects of day-to-day life, said there had been no previous problems with the neck line outside hospital.

But suspicion was aroused on the morning of November 8 when Mr Bell was not up and out of bed in time for a routine dialysis appointment.

“I went into the bedroom and called to him,” said Mr Ifan.

“I went and shook him before I saw all the blood. Then I saw a lot of blood and I called the ambulance men.”

Mr Bell was pronounced dead at the scene.

Paramedic Kerry Hewish said he noticed the screw caps from his neck tubes had been removed. A colleague later found them within Mr Bell’s reach on a bedside table.

A postmortem examination by pathologist Dr Alan Rees found both screw caps from the two neck line tubes were not in position and one of the clamps holding the tubes closed had also been opened.

Both Dr Rees and Jocelyn Navarro, a senior dialysis nurse at University of Wales Hospital, Cardiff, said it was extremely unlikely the caps and clamps would have fallen off without a deliberate act to remove them.

Coroner Louise Hunt said she was “sure” Mr Bell had deliberately opened his neck lines. But said she had not heard enough evidence to be sure he had intended to take his own life and his act was not a “cry for help”.

“I am going to record an open verdict,” she said.

“Because I am not sure about his intentions, although I am sure it was a deliberate act by him which led to his death.”